As psychology is about examining human behaviour and mental processes, it
is necessary to use human participants in research if we want to obtain findings which are valid. Using people comes with the responsibility to consider
and protect their physical and mental well-being, and rights to privacy. Ethical
guidelines have been put in place to ensure this. This chapter explains what
the ethical guidelines are and how they are applied in order to protect participants. It also focuses on one research paper to highlight the issues of treating
participants ethically.

What are ethics?

Ethics are a set of principles which relate to correct conduct and standards.
They are related to a moral code which specifies right and wrong. In general,
ethical codes set out rules for how specialists in a subject (e.g. medical doctors,
lawyers, psychologists) should treat the general public. Ethical guidelines are
there to protect the rights of a person, such as their privacy, safety and mental
health.

Imagine the following scenario. You go into work one morning, as normal,
and you are called to a meeting during which your employer tells you that
you will be taking part in some research that two psychologists are doing. You
are told that you must take part; the penalty for not doing so is to lose some
of your monthly salary. One of the psychologists takes you to a room; you sit
next to this psychologist who tells you to follow their instructions while the
second psychologist observes you. You feel very uncomfortable with what
they ask you to do, but when you ask to stop taking part, you are told that
you cannot. Once the research is finished, you are told that you can go. You
are not told anything about what you have just done. Over the next month,
you feel anxious about what you did. How would you feel if this happened to
you? Most probably, you would feel angry that you did not have a say in

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